Basically duplicate sites that act like they're two different businesses. How do they not get dinged?

[jotham2]

I bought supplies recently at barcodesinc.com.  While searching I noticed it is clearly the same site as barcodediscount.com.  How do they not get hurt by duplicate content?

[StalkerB]

A lot of affiliate sites sell the same stuff but the sites themselves aren't really the same.

Each product has a unique description (as far as I've looked) and realistically that's the only way affiliate sites differentiate themselves.

I agree it's possible that these sites may be run by the same person or company but a quick look through the sites tells me they are both pretty much legit.

Shopping sites like this seem to do quite well even when using the manufacturer description. If the rest of their SEO is good then I'm guessing Google understands the type of sites they are and doesn't penalise them harshly. Remember duplicate content isn't as big a problem as it was once made out to be.

[eyepaq]

Duplicate content is no longer a penalty reason - google will only decide who of them is the original source and list in the search engine results the appropriate source.

Sometimes however the one that in fact is the one that did copied the content is getting listed first and the original source is getting down in search results.